TLTP
\nWASHINGTON
\nUS President Donald Trump has awarded the Legion of Merit to current and former leaders in Australia, India and Japan, decorating the heads of the US-led \u201cQuad\u201d alliance created to counter Beijing in the Asia-Pacific.
\nThe prestigious military honour was handed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian premier Scott Morrison and Japan\u2019s ex-PM Shinzo Abe on Monday, the head of the National Security Council, Robert O\u2019Brien, announced in a series of tweets.
\nCommending Abe \u2013 who resigned his post earlier this year over health issues \u2013 for his \u201cvision for a free and open-Indo-Pacific,\u201d Modi for \u201cleadership in elevating the US-India strategic partnership\u201d and Morrison for \u201cpromoting collective security,\u201d O\u2019Brien said the awards were each accepted by envoys from the three nations and would soon be relayed to the statesmen.
\nTogether with the US, the four countries make up the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also known as the \u201cAsian NATO\u201d or simply the \u201cQuad.\u201d Though the informal alliance was largely dormant throughout the 2010s amid disputes between Canberra and New Delhi, the Trump administration has overseen a resurgence of the bloc, encouraging renewed cooperation and military drills in the Asia-Pacific with eyes on China. The alliance met last month for three days of naval exercises off the coast of India, showing off an arsenal of destroyers, frigates and other warships.
\nDuring a meeting of the Quad in Tokyo in October, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo touted the alliance as a way to \u201ccounter the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party presents to all of us,\u201d denouncing the government for \u201cexploitation, corruption and coercion.\u201d
\nBeijing, for its part, has repeatedly condemned US-led military exercises and freedom of navigation stunts, slamming American power projection in the region as a deliberate provocation while urging Washington and its allies to abandon their \u201cCold War mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TLTP WASHINGTON US President Donald Trump has awarded the Legion of Merit to current and former leaders in Australia, India and Japan, decorating the heads of the US-led \u201cQuad\u201d alliance created to counter Beijing in the Asia-Pacific. The prestigious military honour was handed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian premier Scott Morrison and Japan\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-163785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n